I have heard hard polytheists come up with all sorts of words to distinguish their gods from Jungian archetypes. The gods, they say, are "real", "literal", "individual", "distinct", and "separate"; they are "persons", "beings", "entities", or "agents". The archetypes, it is implied, are none of these things.

I think much of this is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of the archetypes. In the next four posts, I want to talk about four terms that polytheists use to distinguish gods from archetypes: "real", "literal", "separate", and "agents".

Every day at this time of year, either morning or evening, I do some gardening, keeping back the riotous growth that excels in this season. If I didn't, many plants would simply take over the garden, crowding out some other favourite plants. Though these crowders may be near the end of their cycle, in their death they will still smother those that have great potential, as their time is arriving.It's a hard time of year to keep on top of things, as the sun is so hot in our south-facing garden, and time is limited to mornings and evenings when we won't burn to a crisp or keel over from heat exhaustion. Jack in the Green is running riot, uncaring, reaching for the sun, drinking in the rain.

Yet if I want my irises and lilies to survive, I must release them from the choking hold of ground creepers/covers that threatens their existence.I must carefully weed out and try to keep under control those plants whose vigorous growth would otherwise overwhelm others. In this, I feel a kinship to my ancestors, not only my recent ancestors whose work with plants runs in my blood, but also ancestors of this land who depended upon agriculture to survive. Both physically and metaphorically, this is the ideal time to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Even as I hear the tractors and combine harvesters rumbling in the fields on the other side of the street, so too do I look both within and without to see what needs harvesting, and if the harvest has been good.Getting out in the garden brings it all home, showing that if you take on the responsibility of growing things, of nourishing them, then you must do your job well in order for your harvest to be good.Walking out in the fields after supper, running my hands over the tops of the wheat and barley that grow around here, I make my prayers for the harvest to go well, for the people to be nourished and for the land to be treated well. The time nears for when we give back in great gratitude as Lammas, Lughnasadh, Harvest-Time arrives.

In Part 1 and Part 2, we looked at Team Intrepid as it began an event planning process for a Pagan event without creating any structure for decision-making or establishing any goals, and diving right into minutia of the event. And making the wrong decision first can have a lot of impact on later planning.

Event Venue Choices

Let's say Team Intrepid assumes we'll be doing the event at Green Tree Park. They aren’t making this decision for any strategic reason, it's just that the team leader lives near the park and is familiar with the park.

One of the most obvious candidates for a Vegan Pagan ancestor is Pythagoras. Whether he fully abstained from all animal products (and at what point in his life) we cannot know, but he had enough to say about the practice to make “Pythagorean” the term for a person who abstained from flesh up until the term “vegetarian” was coined, around the 1850s.

For a long time, I believed that vegetarian and vegan (strict vegetarian) practices were fairly new in human societies and cultures. In doing some research, however, I have found more and more that this is far from the case. Many ancient writers, thinkers, religious leaders, and ethicists considered this topic. They tended to be concerned both with ritual animal sacrifice, and with the eating of animals. These two issues were almost synonymous in the ancient world, since sacrificed animals were eaten at least by the priests, and usually by the general public.

Taking time to become aware of the self is a large part of the modern Pagan movement.In the last twenty years, exploring the psychological aspect in many of the traditions has been as important as the metaphysical and the spiritual work. Many have done this, as part of a training course or in their own deep learning, but perhaps subsequently allowing it to fall by the wayside; once it’s been studied, that’s it, let’s move on.Being aware of your emotions and behaviour is a never-ending quest in self-awareness.In order to live as Pagans it should be a lifelong exercise, in order to ensure that we are living honourably and respectfully within nature and the natural cycle.

Indeed, it is our responsibility to be aware of what we put out into the world, emotionally and physically, as Pagans.We know that we are a part of a greater web, therefore when one strand is tugged, all the others shiver all the way down to the core.We need to be able to see when we have failed to act with honour, in our human relationships, in our relationships with the natural world, in our relationship with the gods and the ancestors.And in doing so, we can work to make amends, to reweave those threads that have been pulled apart.

Sometimes the damage is so great that we need to start again, and that is perfectly acceptable.When there is no possibility of working with another without losing that sense of honour, where there is no respect, then we can walk away calmly and begin again, focusing our energy on creating the world we wish to live in that benefits the whole.We can still try to understand the situation, working with compassion, but we don’t have to participate in it any longer, especially when it becomes abusive.